of a will, and before he was aware
of it a feeling that he was master of Crompton Place crept over him. Amy
would live there, of course, just as she did now, even if he should
marry, as he might, and there came up before him the memory of a rainy
night and a helpless little girl sitting on a mound of stones and dirt
and crying with fear and pain. He had seen Jack's interest in Eloise
with outward indifference, but with a growing jealousy he was too proud
to show. He admired her greatly, and thought that under some
circumstances he might love her. As a Crompton he ought to look higher,
and if he proved to be the heir it would never do to think of her even
if Jack were not in his way. All this passed like lightning through his
mind as he read the telegram and handed it to Jack, who, he insisted,
should return with him to Crompton.

"I feel awfully shaky, and I want you there if anything happens," he
said, while Jack, whose first thought had been that he would be in the
way, was not loath to go.

Eloise was in Crompton, and ever since he left it, a thought of her had
been in his mind.

"If I find her as sweet and lovely as I left her, I'll ask her to be my
wife, and take her away from Mrs. Biggs," he was thinking as the train
sped on over the New England hills toward Crompton, which it reached
about two P.M.

Peter was at the station with Sam, and to Howard's eager questions
answered, "Pretty bad. No change since morning. Don't seem to know
anybody except Mrs. Amy and Miss Eloise. She's with him all the time,
and he tries to smile when she speaks to him."

"Who?" both the young men asked in the same breath, and Peter told them
all he knew of the matter during the rapid drive to the house.

Howard was incredulous, and made Peter repeat the story twice, while his
brain worked rapidly with a presentiment that this new complication
might prove adverse to him.

"What do you think of it?" he asked Jack, who replied, "I see no reason
to doubt it," and he was conscious of a pang of regret that he had not
asked Eloise to be his wife before her changed circumstances.

"She would then know that I loved her for herself, and not for any
family relations," he thought.

He had no doubt that Amy was Col. Crompton's daughter, and if so,
Eloise's position would be very different from what it had been.

"I'll wait the course of events, as this is no time for love-making," he
decided, as they drove up to the door, from which the d